The Walking Dead: Wildfire – Dork Review

As you’d expect from a series as slow as The Walking Dead, this week is mostly devoted to the aftermath of last week’s sudden zombie attack. The survivors pick up the pieces, and many cast members are dead.

Of course, I wasn’t as in love with last week’s episode as I had been with previous ones, so I was hoping for a return to form here. Did the show deliver, or will it be another shambling disappointment?

Everybody’s Dead, Jim

The original Walking Dead comic book series was never afraid to kill off major characters, and I had wondered whether this element would find its way into the televisual adaptation. After all, would notoriously flighty TV audiences cope with having hardly any regular cast to hold onto?

Based on these episodes, they seem to be keeping it bloodthirsty. A fair few are written out here, more than I expected, and they number most of the characters who had been given spotlight moments in previous weeks. Is it going to be the case that any Walking Dead background characters that get a few big scenes will be knocked off the following week?

I don’t know, but this episode really worked for me, getting back to the survival element, the hard decisions and, yes, the mewling soap opera. Soap with zombies is, basically, this show’s calling card.

Doctor Jenner, Alcoholic

With the exit of a few characters, we get a new one in the form of Doctor Jenner, a character who doesn’t appear in the comics at all. He seems interesting enough so far, a cynical counter-point to the desperation of our existing survivors. We’ll have to see how he develops next week.

Meanwhile, after being stalled a few episodes by Rick running around playing cowboy, he and Shane have terse conversations, with all the undercurrents we’d hoped for. Perhaps this will explode into a big fight next week.

Because, of course, the next episode is the finale of this short series, so there must be some kind of huge drama. Will anyone kill each other? More fatalities? We’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, this was a great improvement. Do tell me below whether you agree, and what might be coming next week.

Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.

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